Understanding the Reaction Kinetics of Polyurethane Flexible Foam
Abstract
Polyurethane flexible foam is used throughout daily life predominantly as cushions
for chairs and mattresses. Currently new foams are made through extensive
research and development via trial and error. There are many reactions
interacting with each other during the polyurethane generation process. The
numerous reactions create difficulty in modeling and predicting the physical
attributes of a foam. This thesis explores the kinetics associated with each reaction
to generate a simple model to understand the reaction kinetics with the addition
of some additives. This thesis focused on creating the foams in a real-world
environment, including allowing ambient water vapor to be mixed into the system
and heat to be transferred out of the system into the surroundings. In addition, CO2
measurements were taken throughout the experiment.